Magical girls have long been a staple of the anime genre. Many male characters, whether jokingly or not, end up becoming Magical Boys.
With the enduring popularity of “Magical Ladies,” such as those featured in Sailor Moon and Pretty Cure, it seems to reason that their male counterparts would be given an opportunity to shine at some point.
Some of them even have fascinating backstories.
It’s not easy to pin down what makes a boy a “Magical Boy.” A transformation sequence, stock attacks, an age-changing motif, and perhaps a talking animal mascot can go a long way toward disproving the skeptics who say that magic alone isn’t enough.
Some are just like the original, while others are direct parodies. There are many male co-workers of the Magical Girls who might also serve as examples.
Now let us look at the best magical boys of Anime
15. Negi Springfield From Mahou Sensei Negima!
We have our magical boys. In Mahou Sensei Negima, Negi Springfield trains to become a master mage like his father.
Yet, his final test was unexpected. At 10, he becomes a teacher at Mahora Girl’s Junior High instead of a wizard. Negi must discover how to instruct his 31 junior high ladies to become a true mage.
Because of his diverse wizardry, Negi is truly magical. With terrible wind and lightning-based abilities, Negi’s power is a force to see.
Still more! He can defend himself in a fight thanks to Ku Fei, one of his students. His “pactio” sequences, where he bonds with one of his students (typically Asuna) and summons a magical artifact peculiar to her, make him magical boys in the traditional sense.
14. Souta Kishibe From Magical Girl Raising Project
The latest magical boys is #14. “Snow White” Koyuki Himekawa is his childhood friend.
He transforms into La Pucelle, a magical girl who can change the size of her blade if she can see it. The Magical Girl Raising Experiment allowed anyone to become a magical girl, male or female, including Souta.
However, magical energy has caused problems in his district, so the administration is tasked with halving the number of magical girls. Souta fights 15 magical girls for his power.
Souta Kishibe shows how magical girls’ popularity transcends gender. He didn’t become one out of tragedy or power. Souta joins the project because he loves the character archetype and wants to experience it.
His desires are shared by every male fan who wants to be a part of that world but feels embarrassed by its gender bias.
As of this writing, Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku is still airing, so Souta’s development will continue!
13. Shaoran Li From Cardcaptor Sakura
Finally a magical boy icon. Shaoran Li is a distant relative of Clow Reed, the Clow Card creator.
Shaoran believes he is destined to become the next Clow Card master due to his distinguished ancestry. He hates Sakura Kinomoto for taking the lead in this race for mastery.
After Sakura masters, Shaoran forgives her and warms up to her. He slowly falls in love with the young Clow Cards mistress.
Shaoran’s emotions make him appealing. He goes from cold disdain for Sakura, his greatest rival, to a blushing elementary school student unable to express himself to her. We witness his growth.
One of the most iconic moments in the magical girl series is Sakura accepting his homemade teddy bear.
12. Yumoto Hakone From Binan Koukou Chikyuu Bouei-bu LOVE! (Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE!)
If magical boys are just a variant of magical girls, Yumoto Hakone fits this list best. See his outfit.
He would look like a magical girl if you replaced his short shorts with a skirt. However, this fulfills Binan Koukou Chikyuu Bouei-bu LOVEpurpose. !’s
This parody series features a pink wombat named Wombat who gives him his powers and a villainous trio led by a green hedgehog.
Yumoto makes this list because he’s entertaining. Yumoto’s reaction to Wombat should give you a good idea of his personality.
The series uses his indifference to show how insane this situation is. His character causes us to really reflect on what a magical boy really means.
11. Blue Knight From Tokyo Mew Mew
This section contains major Tokyo Mew Mew spoilers.
The Blue Knight is a constant ally of main character Ichigo Momomiya. Ichigo usually saves her from a villain. Since he doesn’t know where he came from, he only says that he was born to protect her.
The Blue Knight is Ichigo’s longtime boyfriend Masaya Aoyama, revealed after a lengthy investigation.
The Blue Knight makes this list because he uses “magical” character tropes against the audience. Like a magical girl, the Blue Knight’s identity is hidden from the world.
Despite this, he remains an ally of the Mew Mews until he is tragically revealed to be a villain. Masaya is Ichigo’s only comfort throughout the series, but she must face his inner evil in Deep Blue.
10. Dark Revived From D.N.Angel
After his crush turned him down on his 14th birthday, Daisuke Niwa of D.N.Angel changes into an older person with purple hair.
He finds out that, because of a sort of family curse, he shares his body with a being named Dark. Dark takes over when he feels love, and he needs to steal cursed works of art to make them clean again.
Only love can break the spell, which means that the person he loves must also love him back.
In a lot of ways, this series is an early version of Magical Boys, especially because it doesn’t make fun of the genre as much as later ones did.
Even though Dark and Daisuke are different characters, the idea of a hero who can change their age reminds me of Magical Girls from the 1980s like Creamy Mami and Minky Momo.
9. Natsuru Senou From Kämpfer
Natsuru Senou matches the Kämpfer image above. Natsuru, a boy, becomes a woman when he activates his Kämpfer form.
Fire powers, too! Watch as Natsuru fights other Kämpfers in high school and deals with unwanted attention from other students.
A list of magical boys would be incomplete without a gender-bent magical girl. And it’s hard to think of gender-bent magical boys who have a more outlandish set-up than Natsuru.
Managing the pressure of being one of the Three Beauties of Seitetsu would be one thing. He would only have to avoid unwanted suitors.
Natsuru must accept that his childhood crush, Kaede Sakura, only likes him in Kämpfer form. Real struggle.
8. Tuxedo Mask From Sailor Moon
Sailor Moon changed the Magical Girl genre in a lot of ways, and Tuxedo Mask could be seen as an early version of a Magical Boy.
As Sailor Moon’s secret guardian, they have a sort of mutually beneficial relationship. He often helps her fight the monsters of the day, or at least gives her the confidence to do so, but at the end of each story arc, it’s usually her job to save him when the bigger bad guys kidnap him.
Different versions change how close he is to a Magical Girl. In the manga, he had his own moves, such as “Tuxedo La Smoking Bomber,” but in the ’90s anime, he just threw roses.
Sometimes, he gets a scene where he changes, but not as often as the Sailor Scouts. In fact, when he did change in the live-action show, it was mostly just him putting on clothes.
7. Kyōsuke Kasuga From Kimagure Orange Road
Like D.N.Angel, Kysuke Kasuga, the main character of Kimagure Orange Road, is often seen as an early version of Magical Boys, even though he doesn’t make fun of the genre.
He is a teenager with special powers, but he has to hide them.
He can, among other things, teleport, move things with his mind, control machines, and even do a limited kind of time travel.
In fact, the Christmas episode is thought to be one of the first anime episodes to use a time-loop plot.
6. Ayumu Aikawa From Is This A Zombie?
In Is This a Zombie?, Ayumu was a normal boy until he was killed by a serial killer and brought back to life as a zombie by a necromancer.
By accident, he then gets powers from a Magical Girl, which turns him into one himself, complete with a frilly pink costume and a magic pink chainsaw.
In true Magical Girl style, he can even add roses and a tiara to his costume to make it even better. Some of the bad things about being a zombie, like being weak in the sun, are taken away by this change.
5. Magical Boys From Cute High Earth Defense Club
Many early versions of the Magical Boys worked with a Magical Girl or on their own, but Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE! was not like that.
Instead, it was a parody of the genre with five Magical Boys who could change into different things.
With the help of a strange pink wombat, the five become the Battle Lovers, heirs to the throne of love.
Each of them controls one of the five elements: light, water, air, earth, and fire. The Conquest Club is one of their rivals. Their mascot is a green hedgehog that talks.
4. The Seven Leafe Knights From Pretear
Even though a Magical Girl is the main character of Pretear, Himeno gets her powers from the Seven Leafe Knights, who each control one of the seven elements: wind, sound, light, fire, ice, water, and plants.
She not only needs them to change, but they are also her costume.
Himeno can also fuse with one Knight at a time, so when she attacks, the other Knights are there to help her fight an enemy.
The seven also have magic uniforms in addition to their regular clothes.
3. Kaito From Magic Kaito
Kaito Kuroba of Magic was a well-known actor before he became known for his role in Detective Conan.
Kaito found out that his dead father was the mysterious Kaito Kid, so he decided to take on the identity himself to stop the people who killed his father.
Kaito is a good magician, ventriloquist, and impersonator. These skills help him as a Phantom Thief. Even so, as the series went on, the fantastic parts became less important.
But in the Magical Girl genre, magician thieves aren’t unheard of. Just look at Saint Tail.
2. Chacha From Akazukin Chacha
In Akazukin Chacha, Chacha is an orphan witch who goes to a magic school.
There, she meets two Magical Boys: Shiine, another magician’s apprentice, and Riiya, who can turn into a wolf.
When the series was turned into an anime, it was decided that Chacha would also turn into a superhero as an adult.
The Magical Princess was based on Sailor Moon. Shiine and Riiya don’t change into something else, but they help Chacha do it.
1. Yugi From Yu-Gi-Oh!
Many Yu-Gi-Oh! fans have noticed that Yugi is a lot like a Magical Girl. Even better, he gets a transformation scene with a magical object.
In the early episodes of the Toei anime and manga, he uses his powers to trap bad guys in Penalty Games. Later, he uses them to play card games.
Like all good Magical Girl shows, the anime is known for its speeches about friendship.
The series has a bit of an age-changing theme, like D.N.Angel. Yami Yugi is taller than regular Yugi and, depending on the dub, may even have a deeper voice.
However, Yami Yugi is a separate person and was younger than Yugi when he died, which makes things a bit more complicated.
This was also pretty unique to the anime (magical boys), since in the manga they were the same size.
